fema is the operation that runs the federal flood insurance program. a lot of people down along the jersey shore and long island as well, they have insurance for flooding through federal government. there could be tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and tens of billions of dollars worth of claims. but did you realize this? right now in the kitty of that particular flood program, they've got $3.8 billion. a lot of it is in loans and they still owe $18 billion from katrina. >> peter: what will be necessary, unfortunately it appears, is that there needs to be congressional authorization, that the president would have to go back to the congress and get additional money to fund the program going forward. we know that with regard to katrina, it cost about $3.8 billion. irene, $1.8 billion. we don't understand what this is going to be costing. maybe as great as katrina at this point. >> steve: absolutely. >> gretchen: there is an argument about federal versus state. some said the states should be in charge of some of this relief money so you don't hav